SPRINGFIELD — Local legislators sat in the jury boxes in two different crowded District Court courtrooms recently as Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni sought to give them a firsthand view of staffing shortages in the Hall of Justice here.

District Court Judge William J. Boyle told the group of state legislators from the region there are seven District Court judicial vacancies here.

After meeting with Mastroianni, Boyle, Springfield District Court Clerk John Gay and Hampden Superior Court Clerk Laura S. Gentile, the lawmakers went into courtroom one, where Boyle took the bench as dozens of people waited for the session to start.

Boyle called some cases, but then had to leave courtroom one – the arraignment session – to sit in courtroom two – the pre-trial hearing session – since there were no other judges to cover that session.

District Court Judge William BoyleDave Roback / The Republican

The other District Court judges working that day were presiding over other sessions of the court.

Courtroom two was just as crowded as courtroom one.

Gay told the legislators there are 12 vacancies in the District Court Clerk’s Office.

The Trial Court imposed a hiring freeze in 2008. There have been some hirings, particularly court officers, beginning in the spring of 2012, but there are still acute staff shortages.

Boyle said Springfield is the busiest District Court in the state.

Mastroianni said the continuing theme of the presentation was that when you compare Springfield to courts in the eastern part of the state, the other courts have more staffing.

“I wanted to walk them around the courthouse. I wanted to show them, not tell them,” he said of the legislators.

Seven legislators attended the event Jan. 17, and aides to three other legislators participated.

After the courtroom observations, Mastroianni outlined for the group legislative priorities of district attorneys statewide. He asked legislators to help with those goals.

He said a big priority is updates to the state’s wiretap laws. The state’s current wiretap law was drafted more than 50 years ago to fight organized crime.

The current version is difficult to apply to modern technology and continually challenged as not applicable to cell phones and texts, he said.

Mastroianni said court rulings have suggested street gangs may not fit the definition of organized crime. New law would identify the type and group of crimes for which wire interception could be used as an investigative tool – such as homicide, drug and gun crimes, he said.

Another priority is to establish a heightened penalty of up to five years in state prison for domestic assault and battery convictions if the defendant had previously been convicted.

A separate priority is to create the crime of strangulation of family or household member punishable by up to five years in state prison. If the strangulation causes serious bodily injury, the penalty could be up to 10 years.

The district attorneys want to expand the DNA database to require anyone arrested on a felony to provide a DNA sample after an arraignment. If the person is not convicted, the sample would be expunged.

They also want to create the crime of solicitation to murder punishable by up to 20 years in state prison.

The district attorneys urge the creation of the crimes of assault by a firearm and assault and battery by a firearm. The latter would be punishable by up to 15 years in state prison.

They want the creation of the crime of assault “by intentionally brandishing a firearm,” punishable by up to 10 years in state prison.